AI and the better angels of our nature

“The better angels of our nature”. Famously, I think, Abraham Lincoln used this expression as his country stood on the abyss of civil war.

One place where the better angels of our nature often gets suppressed is in written communication. In fact, as we sit to type away in our blissful solipsism, the evil demons of our nature get up to mischief and, more often, malice. To put it plainly, we write to people what we would not say to them if they were standing in front of us.

We need to confront this tendency. But how?

Here are two ways:

1.    As you write, imagine the person you are writing to is standing in front of you and ask yourself: “Would I Say That?” In other words, would I say to the person’s face what I have just written to them? And if the answer is no, don’t write it!

2.    Use AI. Yes, I know I’m obsessed with it and it is EVERYWHERE. But this, I’m afraid, is another great use for it.

Take what you have written and plug it into your favourite LLM and ask something like this:

“I have written this email to my colleague concerning [put in what she did or said or isn’t doing or saying]. I would like her to receive the message favourably and in a non-defensive state. The email should show understanding and empathy towards her, and importantly it should give precedence to the better angels of my nature and not my demons within.”

I actually used that above prompt retrospectively on an email that had got me into a whole lot of trouble. I used it with Gemini (my favourite LLM at the moment), and the changes it made to the original email were profound and insightful and hugely instructive.

I learnt a few things:

-      I can be an absolute jerk when I write.

-      Words carry huge emotional weight.

-      Sometimes considering emotional impact needs to outweigh conveying the truth.

-      AI might just help us be better humans. Or at least give a chance for the better angels of our nature to, if not soar, at least flap their wings once in a while.